In the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship category, Andreas Aigner led the way in his Red Bull-backed Mitsubishi Lancer, 0.1 seconds up on Nasser Al-Attiyah.

Mark Higgins was third, 0.6 seconds further back, with Armindo Araujo, Phillip Morrow and Gabriel Pozzo fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

The WRC circus will now return to Sligo, in north-west Ireland, where the rally HQ and service park is based. The drivers will be flown the 200-odd kilometres back, whilst the cars will be loaded on to transporters for the three-hour road trip.

The action now gets underway 'proper' on Friday at 08.05 hours local time, with the 11.48 kilometre-Geevagh 1 stage. Nine stages will be run tomorrow – totally over 150 competitive kilometres.